Nuclear's Future (Bruce Lacy, Duane Arnold Energy Center, Spokesman)

Will nuclear power continue to be a force in the future? Bruce Lacy speaks for Iowa's only nuclear facility.

Transcript: Nuclear's Future

Nuclear, I think, is going to play a very strong role in supplying baseload electric demand. As we look ahead at new nuclear designs, I think we're going to see the potential for nuclear plants to be built as smaller plants that can be positioned closer to where the need for electricity is. I think that's going to be an advantage for other technologies that are kind of smaller and more modular. So that's one thing that we're going to see. The transmission system's ability to get electricity from where it's generated to where it's needed is going to be another huge factor in this. So where we build our power plants, regardless of what kind they are, versus where the demand is, that's going to be an important consideration. A lot of factors here, availability, economics, ease of getting things going, and what we're willing to put up with in our environment. Would we rather have a power plant closer to us, where the need for electricity is, or would we rather have the power plant farther away and build a transmission line? Or are we going to have a system whereby we recognize both the economic and environmental costs of these things and appropriately apply conservation to our lives. These are all challenges for us ahead and I'm confident that we're going to do a good job resolving this. Good public debate, it'll get us there.